Legion World Forums LEGION CLUBHOUSE The Legion of Super-Heroes Long Live the Legion! Adventure Comics starring the Legion of Super-Heroes

I agree that there was an effort to push the Legion. Now? Well... I understand the argument, but what does it mean to reinvigorate and repopularize the Legion without publishing any Legion comics?

The cartoon did not fail. Warner Brothers just decided to stop making cartoons, that's all. And not just the Legion: the whole KidsWB enterprise was shut down. Not DC's fault, certainly, but the cancellation of the comic book (which a) was much better than you give it credit for, and b) didn't necessarily have sales problems, as nobody knows just what the sales numbers are for any Johnny DC titles) was all on them.

I'm always willing to admit that the threeboot had flaws, but it also had the problem that DC was throwing its weight behind Geoff Johns's Legion, while Johns was giving everyone the impression that he was the first guy to write a Legion comic in 20 years.

What I'm worried about is that this is the big plan: the Legion are to be guest stars in Adventure in perpetuity. And that won't work because Adventure is kind of a weird idea for a comic book. And there's no plan B. And then in 2011 or something DC will put some C-list writer on a Legion title to fill out the bottom of their solicits list, and it'll stink.

Certainly not the only way things could happen. As I said, I could just as easily paint a very rosy picture of what's going to happen, because there are some hints of deep and clever planning. But I don't trust them to get it right. DC made me like the threeboot, and then they crumpled it up and threw it away. I know DC is making an effort and I know they don't hate the Legion or its fans... but I think they're too often careless.

You're preaching to the choir on that sentiment. And as a corollary to DC's decision on trashing the 3boot for the Johns 'retroboot,' I suspected that there was a level of trepidation with the transition from Post-Zero Hour to 3boot.

Although Waid had some great twists and established a different modus operandi on the book, I don't think DC had their total support with him, which is a shame because there was so much untapped potential with the 3boot.

If or when the 3boot Legion survives LO3W and travel back to wherever earth they are from (I know this might be wishful thinking), but I would like to see another FC Aftermath mini, or set it in R.E.B.E.L.S., dealing with LO3W's ramifications and at least put an official capstone on this era in Legion history, because issue #50 was not an ending. It was just a fill-in.

Almost certainly the final fate of the 3Boot will be revealed in LO3W. That's why Ish 50 had an inconclusive ending. Perez just said 2 weeks ago he was still woking on LO3W 4, so there was nothing absolutely set in stone even after Ish 50. Based on the solicit for 50 and what happened in 49 ,the subplots that were left unresolved or ignored altogether were the injuries to Phantom Girl, the death of a longtime Legionnaire, and the conclusion of the Projectra storyline.

So you have Phantom Girl and Projectra as the likely candidates for 50 being completely rewritten.

Well the Phantom Girl problem is pretty obvious. She has a fairly prominent role in LO3W #3 that is pretty much impossible to change. But changing her fate in Ish 50 would have been no big deal at all...just don't kill her. Have her heal in one of those protein chambers and then kill someone else in Ish 50. They healed her intentionally to match up with LO3W 3....

But that couldn't be the reason for completely ignoring the Jeckie storyline as well as the solicit.

So does that mean the Jeckie storyline was the cause of the re-write? Most likely. She was either destined to die or become a Legion baddy, and she was already shown in LO3W I believe.

At the same time, she's hardly been indispensible to LO3W up this point so I don't see why they couldn't have written her out of LO3W without much trouble, even at the last minute.

So something still doesn't add up...they still don't have a good reason for ignoring her storyline in Ish 50.

It's also possible that Shooter intended Brainiac 5 to die in Ish 50. He almost did die after all. I could see Brainy being the Legionnaire that dies, at least physically, while his conciousness lives on, perhaps with Dreamy in that alien virtual world. Brainy would then be a sentient computer living in a virtual world, which could be seen as the ultimate personification of his powers. And the prophesized marriage with Dream Girl would also be taken care of, with a twist.

Since 3Boot Brainy he seems to have the most prominent role in LO3W of any 3Booter, that would obviously be a major problem.

But that still doesn't explain why they ignored the Jeckie storyline completely.

So add it all up and what do you get? Why did Ish #50 end the way it did?

Reading between the lines, what I get out of it is that the 3Boot Legion in LO3W HAS to be from after Ish #50 happened, and not any earlier time, and to me that means their final fate and their future is going to be revealed in LO3W, and they have something very specific in mind.

I also get that 3Boot Jeckie possibly has a major role coming up in LO3W that pogtentially makes her indispensible to the plot. That's the only reason completely ignoring her storyline in Ish 50 makes sense.

In any case, I am pretty sure we will be able to figure out why 50 ended the way it did by reading LO3W #'s 4 and 5 and keeping an eye out for what happens with Jeckie...the reason for the Phantom Girl change has already been revealed, and it in turn also reveals that the 3Boot in LO3W is from after Ish 50..

Love that two page spread of Ma, Conner and Krypto looking out over the farm.

Yeah, but as previously said, Legion will be a co-feature. Alas, second-rate team supporting a second-rate Superboy.

Judging by the hype, the Legion are a back-up rather than a co-feature. Conner Kent is clearly the star of the book.

How did his Superboy run compare to Legion sales at the time?

Do we know that for sure, or is it just speculation?

Gary's link quotes Geoff Johns as saying now that Lo3W is out, he can confirm the LSH as the co-feature.

How tiresome. Well, I hope that isn't DC's idea of a permanent solution.

Well, it's like Inigo Montoya going back to the beginning when the plan fails in the "Princess Bride."

A few thoughts, and I haven't read FC:LO3W #4 yet.

1) The Kon-El Superboy has never really been THAT interesting to me, even when Johns wrote him in TT. BUT, there is something intriguing about a character who is heir to both Luthor and Superman interracting with heroes of the future. My favorite portrayal of Luthor is as a potentially heroic genius who got fatally twisted onto the wrong track. So, what does an heir to that legacy, one without the fatal twist (yet), look like? In the SA, we saw the descendant of Luthor helping the Legion, atoning for his ancestor. I wouldn't mind seeing something like that again, especially since it gives some MOTIVATION to telling more stories about the character. Also, it's a reason to see how someone grows up to be a Superman again, which is a nice story to tell. And it fits with Superboy Prime's story, Superman's story and the Legion's story. Since it seems pretty clear Lois won't be having super-babies, Connor really is THE genetic heir to the legacy.

2) I'm still REALLY dodgy about the ongoing potential of the Lightning Saga/LO3W Johns Legion. As I've said before, it's an extended high school reunion exercise that has the potential to get awkward really quickly. Would we really continue to call Garth Lightning LAD at this point? But the hero's name is Lightning LAD, not Lightning MAN. Don't get me wrong, I generally like the portrayals of our Legion as adults that Johns has come up with. Faithful, with some intriguing surprises. But I just don't think an adult Legion is THE Legion. And you can't just tell flashbacks, because there won't be any real suspense.

I haven't read it yet either.

I've always rationalized the 'boy/lad/lass' names for what were clearly (young) adults even in the 1970s and 1980s was that by 30th/31st C standards, where 'normal' longevity might be 2-3 centuries, that youth is a more relative concept than today.

I'm not impressed by the notion that the Legion *has* to be teens. I prefer a Legion that formed as teams but grew up together.

After SW6, Reboot and Threeboot, I'm quite happy to see an adult Legion back in the forefront. Enough of the teens, already! Teen-Legionists have had their way exclusively for the past decade and a half... yet the Legion's most successful sales era was their young-adult years of the 70s and 80s.

Now if DC can just get over its obsession with the upside-down rocket-ship... plenty of us have more nostalgia for the orange tower than the 60s HQ, which was used for only a dozen years the first time around.

I'm neutral on Kon, but I'm glad he grew out of the mid-90s stuff. His black-T-shirt look is cool, though.

It's not that I think they should be (annoying)teens, per se, it's just the disconnect of a supposedley adult Superman hanging around with someone called Lightning Lad. And it's made pretty clear that these guys and gals (paging Sarah Palin!) are older than the "young" adults of the 1970s and 1980s. I'm fine if they are 18-22, but Supes is like 30, and so are they.

'Co-feature' is sure a heck of a lot better than Didio's song and dance routing of;

'It's a Legion book! We'd never abandon such an amazing property and I'm shocked you'd even suggest that!'

'No, it's a Superman family book, but it's gonna have Legion stories in it!'

'No, only the first six issues will have Legion stories in them!'

'No, only the first issue will have a Legion story in it, and it's a reprint of their first meeting with Superboy!'

I like Geoff Johns 'co-feature' idea better than Dan Didio's fast-talking spiral of decay.

Off with your pee-pee!

Cloneboy: after seeing Manipul's panels, I could actually consider thinking about becoming a fan or at least giving the character another shot.

So the Legion are going to be the co-feature in this book? Hmmmm not sure what to think of that.

On the one hand -

* It will certainly be great getting a new Legion story every month.

* Especially one that seems like it will be about the Action-Legion, who are my favourite version at this point.

* And having it be written by someone with the BIG-NAME pulling power of "Geoff Johns" means that the team will undoubtedly be getting a whole lot more exposure than it has in a while and hopefully a lot more new fans too.

But on the other hand -

* I have to spend my hard-earned money on a frakkin' Conner-boring-Kent comic every month just to get my Legion-fix!?

* And it's not even being brought to me by Kesel and Grummett, the only team to ever get this character right, but instead by the one writer who completely annihilated all the interest I used to have in him, Geoff Johns, too!

* And just how many pages will this co-feature be anyway? The Legion need a lot more than only 8 pages a month.

...

I guess I would characterise my position on this new book as 'cautiously optimistic'.

As long as they keep the two features completely separate and do right by the Legion characters then I think I'll be happy.

... Gosh though - Geoff Johns on a Legion ongoing...! One thing's for sure - this is the dawning of a new age in Legion history and fandom!

Here\'s a link to a couple of additional pages, where you can click for a larger image of the MA, Connor, Krypto surveying the farm scene. Freakin' incredible!! I can't wait for this now!

Ah well, legion as a co-feature is better than no Legion at all. Ironically, we're back in the situation pre-S&LSH in which the Legion wasn't popular enough to warrant more than a back-up, it seems.
Let's only hope the "co-feature" will upgrade to a full book at some point.

I can't think of this adult Legion as being that young. They're almost as far along in the timeline as the 5YL legion, who were mostly in their 30s at least. And I'm still thinking of Superman as older than that. Someone once produced a timeline demonstrating that, in the Superman comics as of 2004, he was at least 39. That was assuming his published history from 1986 on held, and it no longer does. Apparently, DC is now playing Superman and his generation younger, and I don't like that. Don't take that to mean I intrinsically prefer an older Superman. What I mean is that there's no longer a clear continuity leading up to his present age.

My reading of the Action-Legion is that they're all roughly in their mid to late 20s and Superman (and Batman and Wonder Woman and so on) are all in their mid to late 30s.

(The original Titans being all in their mid 20s and the current Teen Titans all being in their mid to late teens.)

I don't have a problem with that set-up.

From Geoff Johns: "STARMAN will be the Legionnaire taking front and center stage with our first issue."

This makes me wonder if the new Adventure will be sort of a Brave and the Bold type feature, starring Superboy and a different Legionnaire(s) each issue. I think it would be kind of a cool idea to get the book off the ground, but I'd hope the Legion would gradually take over the focus in the long term--as they've already done to Superboy twice before. ;-)

RE: the Adv. cover, I wonder who that black silouette is supposed to be. Will it be revealed when the book actually comes out, or will it stay black? Is it Kon? Or another Legionnaire? A new character? I hope it's not another villain. We already have Luthor, Brainiac, and Bizarro. I wonder whose hand that is on Star Boy's shoulder too. Dream Girl's maybe?

Thought that might be Mon-El. As there's lots of hints of something happening with "people from the future" and him in Superman's sollicits.

^^^ Why would they black him out if so?

I'm almost 100% positive it's just Superboy-Prime and they're trying not to reveal his fate post-Lo3W.

The cape and the wall-punching are the big clues I think.